reminder

In case you live under a rock and have not heard, this little peanut entered the world today. 

 

She is adorable and is very lucky to have Katie and Bret as her parents.  I  We love her already and cannot wait to go meet her this weekend.

On another note, I was asked about a million times today when I was having kids.  I told one lady that we want to have kids and that we are trying to get debt free (except for a house which we don't own yet. . . ) before we do have kids.  She laughed in my face. Like literally laughed at me and I was not joking, I was serious.  I was speechless, did not know what to say and just told her about Dave Ramsey and that it would happen and that we would be debt free. . . I was then reminded of a verse in 1 Timothy 4 that says 

¹² Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.

So Miss Lady Who Laughed In My Face, Please meet my friend Dave, he just might change your life, and  also have you met my friend Jesus because I know that He and Ryan and I are an UNBEATABLE TEAM and he would not give us dreams that he could not fulfill.  

Wordless Wednesday

GONE

Ryan was out of town last week for training last week in Nebraska.  He left on Monday morning and came back on Friday afternoon.  He then left this morning for training in North Dakota and won't be back until Thursday night.  I have been working really hard on my attitude because I HATE being alone.  I started making a list of things I am thankful for with Ryan being gone. . . I am thankful for the time I have had to do my homework...  I am thankful for getting to eat all of the foods I like that Ryan doesn't... I am thankful for the extra workout I got shoveling (even though I did not want it)...I am thankful for being able to catch up on my DVR...I am thankful that I got to have my friends over last week...I am thankful that I have a husband that works hard for both of us...I am thankful for quiet time...but I look forward to life going back to normal!

A White Christmas

Better late than never right?!  We spent Christmas at the White House this year.  We spent 5 days with my whole family there and had a blast.  We slept in, ate, played games, and wore jammies for insanely long amounts of time!  There was the annual Wooldridge/Kuhlman/White Christmas party. . .Ugly sweater this year

 There were the Christmas Eve pictures by the tree following dinner and church and before reading the Christmas story and eating cookies

 There was "one step at a time" on Christmas morning

 There was also bowling. . . (the picture won't flip for some unknown reason. . . It is fine on my computer :)

 And there was" no shave noel"  sadly, we did not get a picture of all the guys and their hair. . .

A

Then there was the snowy end of 2010. . . another great year for us.  Highlights included the "completion of our first year of marriage" (right dad), my half marathon, Ryan's week off for hunting, moving into a house (we rent still but it is bigger than an apartment) and the continued blessing of our jobs allowing us to intently pursue our goal of becoming debt free.
Things we look forward to in 2011: Becoming Aunt Lan and Uncle Ran TWICE!, beginning my masters, two weekends away with friends, continuing to pay off debt, and trusting that God has a plan and when he is ready will lead us to a place where we can live and work in or near the same community.

Gingerbread houses

 Today at school we made Gingerbread Houses with our Kindergarten Buddies. . . The teachers also had ugly sweater day and this is what Jill (my kindergarten teacher friend) and I wore. . . Yes she is tiny and I am a giant and we decided that on top of it, we had ugly socks so we showed those off too!

 

 Here is the crew. . . all 49 of them. . .

Here are the finished products. . .

And here are my favorites, if you look closely, you will see the frosting on the face and the frosting behind the ear. . . and in the hair :-)

We fed them lots of candy, made a big mess, and had some fun :-) We decided this might become an annual tradition, and can you believe we did not win the ugly sweater award?!?!  One teacher actually told me she was kind of offended because she thought my sweater was really cute and she would have worn it. . . Only in elementary school!

I can't think of a title. . .

Our pastor recently did a whole series on thanksgiving and how we need to continually be thankful for everything in our lives, even the little things because in the end, we don't deserve any of it and it truly does not belong to us, it all belongs to God.  This weekend, I am thankful for this:

 

because it helped me do this: 

 

some of this was done before and in the freezer but I feel like I am now officially ready for Christmas.  Most of these cookies will go to other people, my friends, Ryan's work, etc. . . but it is one of the things I LOVE about Christmas.  I grew up helping my mom in the kitchen and if you know her, you know what a fabulous cook she has and the love she has for others so when I started to think about what I want to give others this Christmas, I thought of her and how she gives away cookies and decided I could do the same.  There are 6 kinds of cookies and chocolate dipped pretzels, all baked with love. . . feel free to stop by if you want to share, I am sure Ryan won't let me give them ALL away. . . 

Bloooooooduh! and Excitement

So my kids in my class have this odd obsession with pulling out their teeth and I often catch them with most of their hand in their mouth and then they pull out a hand covered in slobber and blood clutching their tooth and off they go to the nurse to get the much desired treasure chest.  Well, yesterday I had a little talk with them about pulling out your own teeth because in the middle of one of my lessons a boy does the above mentioned act and yells "I got another one!" (this being 3 in one week, mind you).  So we had a little chat about how it grosses me out that they have their hands in their mouth, covered in blood, and then touch my things. . . eww  Well today, no teeth were extracted, they decided to have bloody noses.  TWO in one day!  It is a good thing I am not squemish around blood!

And excitement. . . I am SO excited for Christmas.  I can't wait.  I feel like my 5th graders. . .  I don't know if it is the traditions that I love or the feeling of the season, this is just one of my favorite times of the year!!  Some things I am excited for: (in no particular order)
1.  The annual Wooldridge/Kuhlman/White Christmas Party
2.  Homemade Macaroni and Cheese
3.  Seeing my family and spending time together!
4.  Watching A Christmas Story
5.  Fires in the fireplace
6.  Reading the Christmas story by the tree in our jammies
7.  One step at a time. . .
8.  Christmas Cookies
9.  Celebrating the greatest birth there ever was
10.  Giving gifts to my favorite people
11. NO SCHOOL
12.  watching Katie eat gag down a fish stick
13.  pinochle/boxers or briefs/malarky
14.  Playing mario (stop jumping on me, put me down, hey, hey, hey)
15.  spending time with the best families in the world!

Enjoy the season,